GREAT job so far, watching this thread has been an inspiration to me, hopefully when my wife and I buy a different house I can convince her to let me do something like this, only with a "volcano waterfall" at one end. After seeing the quality of your work, I had to find out more and went to your site and read your bio, after reading it, I probably won't be surprised to find the amazing things you create. I can remember going to Disney and seeing many incredible things, and now know who was responsible for quite a bit of it, it's just a shame that there wasn't much info on the artists readily available(at least not that I can remember). Thank you!!

Well, I made a huge mistake with the paint. I just got the acrylic pool paint on Friday and went for it. I pressure hosed the pond 3 times, dried it, and then let it dry until it was white again. I sprayed on one coat of the paint (spray gun with compressor) and let it dry. I went into the pond to spray the 2nd coat and the 1st coat started to come up in sheets wherever I walked!! Uh-o!
So then I thought, well, maybe I should roll it on - maybe the spray is too thin. So I did. I slathered the whole two gallons on with a roller and let it dry. Well it gave it a black shiney, slippery finish. After it dried one day, I went in again barefoot to work on some of the color work.... well guess what - spots came up in sheets wherever I walked. Okay, so I stopped that! But I noticed that if my feet were wet, the paint wouldn't lift... it wouldn't stick to my feet. But it was slippery as hell.
If I had it to do over again I would have STAINED the concrete with regular house paing instead of using pool paint. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. On the fake lava rock concrete planter I did a few years ago, I used housepaint and washed it on (as opposed to putting it on thick). The color seeped into the concrete beautifully and gave it a natural looking finish. It's lasted over two years already outside with hosings, rain and everything. Actually it gets better looking the more it ages.
I think this pool paint looks like crap! It looked more like a tar-pit than lava rock.. very plastic looking. Oh well, too late now, I'm stuck with it.
Anyway, they say to wait three days before filling the pond with water. Tomorrow will be three days. The paint seems to be sticking okay now, but my worse fear is that it will come off in sheets under once its under water. I'm so upset about it! Oh well, live and learn. Stay tuned to see what happens when I fill it... next week!

It's been a week of disasters! We let the acrylic pool paint dry for a few days and filled the pond. Guess what? It leaked like a sieve, all over the place! When I emptied it, we discovered some holes in the concrete in the deep end wall that were the culprits. At the same time, portions of the pool paint kept coming up. To top it off, I primed the pump and tried it when the pool was filled... and nothing happened! It just got hot. Disaster all the way around.

This picture below is from last night when we filled it up the second time. We had the hose in the upper waterfall basin just to see what it might look like.

Well, the next day we ground off most of the pool paint we could and cemented and mortared the holes. After doing some more research I came up with this two part epoxy product from TAP Plastics call 'Coat-It'. It's a thick, durable epoxy made for coating ponds and boat hulls and it's a dark grey color. It took four gallon kits to cover the entire bottom and most of the sides. I would have put more on but by that time I got sick. I don't know if it was the fumes or exhaustion or if I got the flew from somewhere else, but right after I collapsed with a terrible 102 fever and was down for two days. By yesterday I was feeling better. The epoxy was cured so we filled the pond up again expecting the worse.... well, no leaks this time!!

I called the pump manufacturer and he said sometimes if new pumps aren't used for a while, the impeller gets stuck and you have to free it up by hand. I did it and it started right up! I tried the pump when the water was filled and it works fantastic. Whisper quiet, and it puts out a great volume of water. It's running through the cartridge filter and the water is nice and clear.

So my next step is to run the piping to the big waterfall. Then more sculpting with mortar to finish off the smaller waterfall. Whew! It's been a long, hard process. But it's starting to look like the pond I hoped it would be.

So listen to Uncle Paul's hard earned advice all you would-be pond builders.... NEVER use acrylic pool paint over raw concrete! The product is crap - a total waste of time and money. The epoxy sealer worked out beautifully so far.

You're right about adding sand to the epoxy. I skipped that step because I just wanted to get it sealed up first. But it says on the can that you can sprinkle it on as its curing to give it some grit. Next year or sometime when I re-coat it I will definitely do it. It's kind of slippery now.

I used a pond style waterfall pump. You can see it here: http://www.mdminc.com/Sequence_750.htmI have it off to the side, and it's hooked up to a filter basket and a small above ground Hayward cartidge pool filter. It's working great so far and it's putting out a great volume of water for the waterfalls. I have the returns hooked up with valves so I can control the flow to each of the waterfalls or to the return inside the pond. The filter is working great - the water is cool and crystal clear. I think it's recycling the whole volume of water two or three times an hour. I've been in it twice today already!

You sure have put a lot of effort into your project and have shared so much here. I just know it is going to be awesome when you finally finish it. Keep on ponding!!!
_________________ "Oh waiter, another cocktail please!!!"

I've heard great things about sequence pumps from ponders.. Reliable brand and more cost-efficient to run being external as opposed to the submersibles. Hope the water level is still holding strong for you.

It seems to have a slow leak somewhere in the top eight inches or so. If I fill it, the next day it will be eight inches lower, but then it will stay at that level. So I think I need another coat of epoxy on those sides. With my first coat I kind of faded it at that area. Anyway, for now I think it's fine until I get time to do recoat it. Practically, it's working just great at this level, there's still plenty of depth and it looks good. But if we have people over or something, we'll fill it for the day.

The filter is working beautifully. We've had the waterfall on most of the day the last few days, and I'm in it 4 times or more throughout the day when I take a workshop break - really cools you off! It really is like a mini pool. And I did it all for under $2000!! I sure learned a lot during this experience.

Well, ya know they say design is an evolution... yesterday I decided to go ahead and give the entire basin another coat of epoxy while the weather is still relatively cool. So I used the pump to drain it for the first time, and it only took 15 minutes! So that means the entire water volume of the pond gets filtered and recycled 4 times an hour when its running - and that's pretty great.

So I got some play sand from Home Depot and sprinkled it on while the epoxy was still wet. It set up overnight and I think the finish turned out great. It's totally non-skid now. Maybe later today I'm going to start mortaring that secondary waterfall while the water is still out of the pond. I'm aiming for Friday or Saturday to refill it now. It should be totally watertight at this point, so I should be able to fill it with no slow leaks this time.

We're having some company over on Saturday - so I'll take some more pictures then of the finished pond with both waterfalls running if all goes well.

Well.... SUCCESS! Everything is up and running fine. The pond has totally changed the feeling of our backyard. It used to be on really hot days, we'd spend only a little time back there and then head back into the air conditioning. But now, with the sound of the waterfalls and taking a little dip from time to time we can spend the whole day out there if we want. So we've created our own mini-pool! Love it!
These are some pictures from our little 4th of July party. It was 104 here that day - and the pond really helped people stay cool. Everyone was sitting around the edge with their feet in the water.
As a last minute touch the day before the party, I got 5 bags of play-sand from Home Depot and spread it all around the flagstone patio around the pond. It's like going to a beach back there now.
That's the latest!